Asia is hoping for another president

Or so could the interpretation go.

I don't want to get involved too much in a public debate which president will be better for the rest of the world, however, I have the strange feeling that this is a crucial election, not only for the US, but for the rest of the world.

As such, I decided to link to this article that was published by ChannelNewsAsia and follows a variety of other related articles last week.

All those articles clearly state that there is hardly any support for a continuation of President Bush's reign in the US. This is not to say that Kerry will be the better president, but it confirms his early statement in the election run-up when he said that leaders across the globe told him that he has to win this election.

It is probably more a choice between Pest and Cholera - I heard this description once to describe the choice that Germans had for an election in German when the choice of the candidates was seen as a choice between, yeah, Pest or Cholera - so don't flame me for this.

Anyway, look at the numbers:

Japan:
56 percent of 1,730 responses favoured Kerry against 21.5 percent for Bush.

Australia:
54 percent of respondents in Australia supporting Kerry while only 28 percent backed Bush.

South Korea:
Split over Bush's perceived hawkish stance

"Some Asians -- particularly in India, Thailand and China -- are apathetic about the US poll, but others have strong views crystallised by US foreign policy issues that affect them at home: the war on terror; economic policies on protectionism and outsourcing; and potential regional flashpoints such as North Korea and Taiwan."

Another newspaper (Haarez.com) wrote that "in 10 countries worldwide, including Israel, the results of a public opinion poll commissioned by leading newspapers in advance of the American presidential election were published on Friday. The results were surprising in their one-sidedness: In nine countries, public opinion about President George Bush was negative, generally by a large majority; only one country, Israel, liked Bush - again by a large majority. Both aspects of this phenomenon are interesting: the negative attitude toward Bush, and Israel's bucking of the international trend."

So it looks as if only in the US is a deadlock between the two candidates. And I try to do my little bit to show those that read my blog in the US that there are opinions outside of the US that hopefully matter to some. Especially since I just read that Bush has gained a eight percent lead over Kerry.